In its latest report, British insurer Lloyd’s said a global cyberattack could cause losses of about $53 billion to the world’s economy.

Released yesterday, the study which was co-written by risk-modeling firm Cyence, suggests that in the event operating systems used by businesses were to be hacked, losses could range between $9.7 billion and $28.7 billion average. However, the document adds that if this attack spreads to cloud services providers, the losses could double, soaring to as much as $53 billion average.

Lloyd’s also highlighted that the losses, which include business interruptions and repairs, could go as high as $121 billion. Out of these, $45 billion might be lost because of companies around the world are underinsured.

In the various scenarios of Lloyd’s and Cyence, hackers have inserted a malware designed to harm systems with a year delay into a cloud provider’s software. The hypothetical losses resulting from the attack are huge compared to $8 billion cost estimated for the “WannaCry” ransomware attack in May, which affected more than 100 countries, Reuters reports.

The Lloyd’s-Cyence report was released in a context where insurance firms are struggling to estimate global exposure to cyber risks, and potential of cyber insurance. A struggle mainly due to the lack of historical data that insurers can use to develop their assumptions.

Aaron Akinocho